Teresa Cahill was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire. Her early life was troubled; when she was five years old, her father died and at seven she was diagnosed with TB and spent two years in a sanatorium. She joined the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus and in her first year won the coveted John Christie award. Her solo debut there was as the First Lady in Mozart’s Die Zauberflote and she also sang in La Calisto and Ariadne auf Naxos, returning later as Alice Ford in Falstaff.

In over a hundred performances at Covent Garden, other roles at Covent Garden included Lisa in La Sonnambula, Xenia in Boris Godunov, First Rhinemaiden and the Woodbird in the Ring, leading Flower Maidens in Parsifal, and 1st Niece in Britten’s Peter Grimes in front of the composer. She also took part in the world premiere of Henze’s We Come to the River.

Opera performances elsewhere include Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier for Scottish Opera, Cavalli’s L’Egisto at La Fenice in Venice also with Scottish Opera, Don Giovanni in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA and Falstaff in Philadelphia USA. She has sung in Figaro (Countess) for Opera North, and both Antonia in The Tales of Hoffman and Pauline Leclerc in David Blake’s opera Toussaint for ENO. She also sang Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (Tatiana) and Beethoven’s Fidelio (Leonore) for Kent Opera under the direction of Jonathan Miller. TV South made a series of programmes about the Fidelio production, one of which was devoted entirely to her role in the opera throughout the rehearsals leading up to the first night.

She has also sung the role of Miss Wordsworth in Britten’s Albert Herring with the English Opera group at the Aldeburgh Festival, in the presence of the composer.